Transcript
Narrator: The initial call for CCC enrollment began in the spring of 1933. Eventually an estimated 3.5 million men, including 55,000 from West Virginia, would serve by program’s end in 1942.
Larry Sypolt: Normally you had to be physically able to work, and you had to be between 17 and 24. You had to be single, and your family had to have a need. Pay was $30 a month or a dollar a day, and automatically, $25 of that was sent home to your family to help them with their economic needs.
Narrator: From the northern panhandle to the southern coalfields, and from the banks of the Ohio River eastward to the highest reaches of the Allegheny Mountains, CCC camps sprang up across West Virginia. In all, a total of 66 camps operated in West Virginia between 1933 and 1942.
All across West Virginia young men flocked to sign up, some lying about their age, others with parental consent.
John Spotts: We walked to Lewisburg and signed up.
Raymond Daugherty: I was pretty small when I come up, pretty scrawny, and I lied to get in. When I was in line, going through, this great big tall Colonel walked up to me, looked at me and he said, “Sonny! How old are you?” Well I was just scared to death and I said, “Eighteen!” He says, “You can’t fool me, you’re 21.” And he slapped me on the rear end and just pushed me on through the line.
